This is Holy Week. It’s the week prior to Easter commemorating the final week leading up to Jesus’ death on the cross and eventual resurrection on Easter Sunday. There is a great deal of emphasis on Holy Week, simply because there is a great amount of scriptural text devoted to this one particular week of Jesus’ life (over 30% of the Gospels are about Holy Week and beyond… in fact one whole semester in college was focused in on this week in the gospels, whereas another semester covered the other 3 1/2 years of Jesus’ life. It’s kind of a big deal.)

As I prepare myself for Easter this year, I’m going to be walking through a reading plan and meditating on the final week of Jesus’ life. I want to invite you to join me in this week of reflection.

Monday - Yesterday was Palm Sunday. Read John 12 and reflect on why Jesus is worthy of honor and worship as our King. How are you expressing that honor in your life?

Tuesday – Read John 14.5-14 and reflect on who Jesus says that he is and what a stronger relationship with him can look like.

Wednesday – Judas agrees to betray Jesus Read Luke 22.1-7. Reflect on the times that you’ve agreed in your own heart to betray Jesus…

Thursday – Last Supper. Read Luke 22.7-20. Every week we walk through this story at IKON as we prepare ourselves for communion. Reflecting on the sacrifice that we know was about to take place, how do you see this differently?

Friday – The Crucifixion. Read Matthew 27.27-56, Mark 15.16-41, Luke 23.26-49, John 19.16-37 and reflect on the different accounts and mourn.

Saturday – Darkness Reigns and Jesus has been laid in the tomb. Read Hosea 6.1-3 and reflect on the darkness of the day and the hope of resurrection, the hope of rescue that awaits in the morning.

Sunday – Resurrection! Read Luke 24 and spend some time Thanking God for sending Jesus to rescue us and then join us at IKON at 9:30a or 11a to celebrate as a community!

“The Church is the hope of the world.” These are the words Bill Hybels has been preaching at Leadership Summits and Conferences, printing in books and writing in articles for many years, but my question is not whether it’s true but if it’s actually being lived out by the church.

On Tuesday morning (1.20.09), Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States under the banner of hope and a promise of change. Obama’s rise from obscurity was nothing short of remarkable, but he achieved this by tapping into the hunger and desperation the country (and the world) was seeking: Hope. Obama’s message was tailored throughout the campaign, and even now in his first few days of office, specifically around the idea of hope which has laid dormant in the hearts and minds of Americans. Ultimately Obama did a tremendous job of exegeting our culture and this masterful understanding not only won him the election but elevated him as the symbol of hope in this country and around the world.

What happened to the church being the hope of the world?

Perhaps a statistic can help us with the big picture. In a recent survey conducted by Lifeway Research, 72% of respondents said the church is “full of hypocrites.” It’s no secret that the public image of the church has taken a major hit, but how did we get to this point?

During the election season, much of the church stood vocally opposed to the election of Barack Obama and his message of hope, sealing the image of the church as destroyers of hope. Despite where you stood in the election, the church’s response to Barack Obama was neither gracious, loving, and least of all hopeful. Perhaps the most startling example was from Focus on the Family in a letter written by Dr. James Dobson entitled Letter from 2012 in Obama’s America [pdf] which declared that the hope Obama would bring is nothing short of the destruction of the Christian faith and unraveling the fabric of American life. In the eyes of the public, the church stood diametrically opposed to hope. This was perhaps the final nail in the proverbial coffin.

For far too long the church has engaged in “hell-fire and brimstone” tactics and strategies that have veered more on the hope-less rather than bringing hope and promise to a world starved for a message of hope. The church’s role is to fill the void with a new hope, however we haven’t and instead of filling it we’ve left a gaping expanse. Barack Obama simply filled the void left by the church.

The church hasn’t done the hard work of listening, of trying to understand what the country is clamoring for (hope-which is exactly what the gospel offers when presented as good news instead of “hell-fire and brimstone”). We haven’t changed our approach to express the hope of the Kingdom of God and as a result Obama has become the symbol of hope reserved for the church because of Jesus. (Never more was this more clear than on Tuesday.) Now we’re left in a position we should have never been in the first place.

It’s time for the church to listen to and learn from Obama, to understand how he speaks to the country and the way in which he communicates a new hope for a new age. It’s time or us not to hitch our train to him, but to ride his coattails and prepare the way of hope by using his language and his rhetoric in ways that communicate the gospel. We can learn from his exegesis of the culture in such a way that eventually we will be able to take up the mantle of hope in the public square once again. Let me be clear: This is not about systematically embracing his political viewpoints and promoting his public policy. This is about learning how he communicates hope to the culture, something we have obviously forgotten how to do.

Remember, in four to eight years Obama, like Bush, will fade into history. Unless the church is there and prepared to pick up the ball of hope and run with it, we’ll have missed our opportunity once again to be the symbol of hope as the bride of Christ. And instead, to the rest of the world, hopelessness will be the banner by which we operate.

“The Church is the hope of the world.”

I stood there with the bread in my hand as person after person came down the line to take a piece and with every person who walked by I recited the phrase, “Christ’s body broken for you,” a deceptively simple phrase to say. As familiar faces strolled past I couldn’t stop internalizing their names as they passed, “Alex, Christ’s body broken for you”; “Justin, Christ’s body broken for you”; “Mike, Christ’s body broken for you,” and on and on. With each name running through my head the harder it became to finish the line out loud. I found myself near tears after 40 people whom I have come to know walked my way, something I wasn’t prepared for during this moment of introspection and celebration.

This morning as we prepared for communion in a more liturgical setting/style we recited The Apostles Creed. At the moment we hit the line, “The third day He rose again from the dead,” my heart leapt for joy within me. This is what communion is about, this is what causes such emotion, this is what causes such joy, this is what brings us together and this is why we celebrate. Christ has risen, and through His resurrection we have hope.

Why then has a majority of the evangelical church forsaken the regular celebration of communion? In many churches I have attended over the years we have gathered to worship in song, in giving of offering, and listening to sermons but these three elements seem to be the only constant whereas communion has fallen by the wayside. Why?

Perhaps this isn’t the proper line of questioning, for there really is no good reason for forsaking the regular participation in communion by the church body. Rather, the proper series of questions should revolve around, ‘What are the consequences?’ ‘What happens to the church who fails to recognize and live as a resurrection community, who looses sight of hope?’

I fear that many of the problems we experience in the evangelical church revolve around the rare appearance of the Eucharist/Communion/Lord’s Supper in our midst, and our gross misunderstanding of its importance to the health and unity of the body.

A month and a half ago I decided to take a break from blogging to allow myself some much needed rest and reflection on what this blog is and will be. Although I’m not 100% sure of what it will be (because you, the reader/commenter are instrumental in shaping and forming this blog) I am sure of where I want to go and with you’re help we can move in that direction. I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences of life in the city of San Francisco as well as the joys and struggles of church planting, but what I’m most interested in sharing and forming is how these experiences and how life in general intersect with the Kingdom of God. Obviously there will be debate about the intersection of some of these experiences (which is healthy) and there will be agreement and question about how my opinion and understanding is formulated (also healthy) but ultimately I see this as a journey in which your presence is not only invited but essential.

Journey with me, take a seat and contribute to what this space can and will be. A space where we can venture together into the hope that is the Kingdom, lifting the thin veil in preparation for what is to come.